So, as well as moving around the world and having a few children we also love our animals. But sadly, leaving Alaska, we had to leave our most beloved dogs behind, Darlah and Louie. Our reasons behind this are because their health wouldn’t have allowed them to fly comfortably, and I wasn’t 100% sure that Darlah wasn’t going to have died during that flight. Darlah was a 10-year-old pure bred king Charles cavalier spaniel, she had gotten to the point in her life where her eyesight was going, she was going deaf, she couldn’t jump up onto furniture anymore so we decided it would be best for her to go to a loving home and live out the last year or 2 of her life in Alaska.
Louie was an 11-year-old miniature Australian shepherd, he was the best, full of life and energy but he also developed some health issues while we were in Alaska. His hips had started to play up and there would be times where they would lock up and he would cry out in pain and it would take some time to get him calm and relaxed so his leg could go into normal position again. Now, that flight from Alaska to London wouldn’t have done him any good being locked up in a cage for that long. My husband had found a work friend who was willing to take him in and have a companion for his other dog. Up until this point we have flown and driven our dogs to wherever it was in the world we went to. It was hard to make those decisions, but it was what was best for them and their health.
Moving to England and not having any dog around felt weird. Too weird for my liking. My husband arrived in November and we quickly started our search for a dog. Most rescue places stated that the dogs they had couldn’t go to homes with small children so adopting wasn’t an option for us. After weeks of searching, we found our new puppy Luna. She is a border collie and full of energy. I remember small parts of having a puppy, but it had been 11 years since I had one, so my memory was a bit hazy. Well, that quickly changed when Luna came home. Puppies are like little land sharks; they like to bite anything and everything and those little shark teeth are sharp. Like, sharp. Every time I would play with her, she would go for my hand instead of the toy. I have so many scars on my hands from her. I would say potty training was hard because it normally is but with Luna being a border collie, she is very smart. She picked up potty training right away and barley had any accidents. I was shocked. I kept wondering when we were going to go backwards in our potty training and when it was going to get bad, but it never really did.
By 10 weeks of age, she knew 8 tricks and was fully potty trained. They don’t joke when they say the border collie is the smarted breed of dog out there. Along with being smart she is full of energy. Of course, she’s a herding dog she is bred to herd so of course she’s going to be full of energy. She was never really a cuddly puppy, and that surprised me. She seemed to have favoured sleeping by the back door where there was breeze coming through rather than sleeping on my lap or the sofa. I have noticed that she does tend to get hot quick, so she likes to sleep in placed where its cool and my lap is not one of those places. Now she’s a bit older, 6 months to be exact she loves to cuddle up, still a little land shark and just as hyper and crazy as ever.
I have always said, having a puppy is much harder than having a new-born baby. Every evening around the same time Luna will constantly ask to be let out and let back in a million times. I have never known anything like it. Honestly, if we weren’t in lock down and I wasn’t eating my weight in food I would probably have lost a few pounds the amount of getting up and down I did. With a puppy you can never take chances, I wanted to be stricter and not let her out every time she but then I was worried she was going to have an accident and I didn’t want all our hard work to go out the window. Once a puppy pees or poops in the house its game over. They’ll carry on doing it. She would ask to go outside, sit and smell the air and maybe bark at nothing a couple of times and then ask to come in. 90 percent of the time she didn’t need to go potty so of course the next time shed ask to go out Id think well, what if she needs to go this time. A vicious cycle I know. Thankfully, she has outgrown that a little bit now and my evenings consist of still eating my weight in food but with less movement. I know, not good. Think I need to hit the gym.
Having a puppy really is hard work, it’s a big commitment and an expensive one. She keeps us on our toes, she has us laughing more times than not, she is crazy and will chase her own tail for a long time, I wonder if dogs get dizzy? Anyway, she is incredibly smart and full of a LOT of energy. I have almost run out of tricks to teach her because she knew the basics and then some from 4 months old. I may start getting her into some agility training and see how that goes. She constantly wants to please and is at her best when she is doing something like, doing tricks.
She has become best friends with our cat who we had before we had gotten Luna who is also still a kitten but coming up to a year old already. I’m fairly certain our cat thinks he’s a dog. When those two really go for it and play fight and chase each other around the house it’s a like a hurricane crashing through. If its in their path it’s getting knocked down. Our car Mo really came out of his shell when we got Luna. It took him a while to get use to Luna being here but in no time at all they became the best of friends. Instead of getting another dog to keep Luna company I think we will just stick with Mo for now.
Keeping it real 